Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn and David Niven
are Allied saboteurs assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate
an impregnable Nazi-held island and destroy the two enormous
long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped
British soldiers. Blacklisted screenwriter Carl Foreman (High
Noon,The Bridge on the River Kwai) was determined to
re-establish both his name and credibility after spending most
of the 50's working in anonymity. To accomplish this, he decided
to bring Alistair MacLean's best-selling novel, The Guns of
Navarone, to the screen. Supported by an all-star cast and
produced on a grand scale, the film was an enormous success,
receiving seven 1961 Academy Award(r) nominations (including
Best Picture) and winning for Best Special Effects. Although
Foreman achieved his goal, it was MacLean who would wind up the
true beneficiary; his novels became the source for many high
adventure screen epics, including Ice Station Zebra and
Where
Eagles Dare. However, it is The Guns of Navarone that
remains not only the best of the MacLean adaptations, but one of
the greatest action/adventure spectacles ever produced.

***

The settings, fighters, and armaments change,
but the fervor, terror, heroism, cowardice, agony, resentment,
egotism, majesty, relief, pain, death, joy, love, corruption,
humor, and insanity abide, as does the desire to mythologize
war's grotesquerie. Unlike his progeny, though, Homer didn't
bother with scoring political points. Neither pro- nor anti-war,
he offered no special succor to those appalled or elated by it.
For that, we've got liberals, conservatives, and, for lack of a
better term, libratives — those who count receipts before taking
sides.

Edition Details:
• The Greek Resistance (interactive - select further
points of interest)-The
Old School Wizardry of The Guns of Navarone
- World War II and the Greek Islands- The
Real World of Guns of Navarone
- The Navarone Effect
- Military Fact or Fiction

NOTE:The below
Blu-ray
captures were taken directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.

ADDITION:
Sony - Region FREE - Blu-ray -
October 11':The Guns of Navarone finally gets its 1080P transfer. The
existing elements still remain at the weaker end - but
the higher resolution definitely improves in
tightening-up colors and the 'scope' factor is far more
prominent than the previous SD. The dual-layered
transfer of the 2.5 hour film quadruples the DVD
bitrate, shows a shade more information in the frame -
skin tones lose their orange hues and warm-up, reds and
blues are notably richer but all colors improve to some
degree. Although I thought I saw edge-enhancement - I
could not positively identify it by zooming-in and if
the halos exist they may be of an extremely high
frequency and essentially unobtrusive. It lacks depth
(looking decidedly flat at times) but the image is
darker without excessive noise. Bottom line - it does
look better visually than SD but will never look...
pristine. Sony's move to HD will be its best digital
representation that occasionally exposes some
Cinemascope mumps (horizontal stretching).

Audio goes the route of a DTS-HD Master 5.1 track at
2154 kbps and it has some positive attributes toward exporting the
soundstage. Separations, predictably, are not dynamically crisp.
Dimitri Tiomkin's fine score does tighten up and sounds impressive
in lossless. There are two optional foreign language DUBs to access
or a list of subtitle choices indicating the disc is, indeed, region
FREE capable of playing on Blu-ray
machines worldwide.

Supplements contains the multitude of
extras from the 2-disc set Collector's Edition DVD including the
commentaries, video features plus add an new feature entitled The
Greek Resistance which heads the lead to allowing you to select
further points of interest via interactive text screens including
sub-headings like 'Military Fact or Fiction', 'The Real
World of Guns of Navarone', 'World War II and the Greek
Islands' etc.

It's a film that you need to own ion its best home
theater representation - and this is it. he price of the
Blu-ray is
current $0.50 more than the DVD set. Easily recommendable.

- Gary Tooze

***

ON THE DVD: It's surprising that only one,
APassage to India, of the
Sony's Collector's Edition classics released in 2007-2008 (notThe
Bridge on the River Kwai, The Caine Mutiny, Lawrence of Arabia or
The Guns of Navarone) have received a
Blu-ray yet. The restored transfer for this particular
title looks excellent, but should look much better in high
resolution. All the shortcomings of the image is due to the
condition as existing materials, as explained in the DVD Savant
review (HERE).
The soundtrack includes original stereo as well as 5.1 remix
from 4.0 audio master plus dubs in 3 different languages
(Spanish, French, Portuguese).

The 2-Disc Set is loaded with
extras, porting over some extras from the old 1-disc edition and
includes a new commentary with a film historian Stephen J. Rubin
which is a better listen than the old commentary with the
director. Much more informative are a multiple of vintage and
new documentaries and featurettes, 29-Minute 'Memories of Navarone' being a standout that features some actors that are no
longer with us. This DVD is recommended, but better to wait for
a high definition release.